"The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness" -Marcus Garvey
BLACK Rainbow
From the softest tan to the darkest ebony. Black people are one of the most varied group of people when it comes to appearance. Black women come in a beautiful variety of shades among the black rainbow. Every woman varies from skin, hair textures to body shapes. In a room of six Black women no two women look alike. There has been an increase in self-love and acceptance with the influence of Black Twitter. However it has not always been positive images circulating on social media for Black woman of every complexion. When I was a freshman in college I began to see a lot of Black people claim a certain skin complexion as superior while degrading another. Colorism is the prejudices people can face based on the lightness or darkness of their skin tone (Huffingtonpost.com). Colorism has affected the Black community tremendously and has caused us as a people to remain segregated. People would claim #teamlightskin #teamdarkskin #teambrownskin. These hashtags would be included in their bios and there were Twitter pages such as @CommonBlackGirl and @CommonLightSkin segregating Black women by the shade of their skin. Black people would flock to these hashtags and pages ignorantly thinking they were being prideful of their skin complexion. It became such a huge issue there were racist memes creating stating that “you all look like niggers” no matter if we were one of the lighter Blacks. Many times light skin Black women were regarded as the standard to beauty and this had a negative effect on a lot of women’s self-esteem. To be constantly bombarded with images of “the perfect Black women” who has light skin, light eyes, long hair and a perfect hour glass figure can make even the most confident woman question her beauty. Now Black Twitter is making a conscious effort to appreciate Black women of all shades. For the first time since ever I am seeing Black women come together to embrace all different hues of Blackness. There have been hashtags created such as #BlackDivas and #BlackBeauty which uplift regular Black women of various shades. There is much less animosity and women are joining forces to uplift one another. It is important to be confident in who you are while embracing differences. It is a moving experience to see the bridge between Black women being repaired. Twitter has become the platform for women to voice their opinions on why it is important to not only love your own complexion but appreciate the beauty in the variety of Black women. Most importantly we are sisters and must stick together to uplift one another. |
Black means... |